Paint the Walls of Hueco Mundo
by NotTheMilk
Summary: A one shot fic I did a long time ago for a friend. What happened after the tension between Hueco Mundo and the Shinigami settled down. Mostly Ishida/Orihime with some Ulquiorra/Orihime. This is years old, but thought it might be fun to upload.


Ishida growled to himself. "Kidnapped. Again." He thought, followed by a "Why?" Orihime-chan was always getting herself into trouble one way or another. And while it was not like he had any undue attachment to her, he told himself, she was still a friend and colleague. So he could not just let this be. Ishida prepared to leave to rescue her, talking to himself as he went. "Sewing kit… Check. Spare cape… Check. Excuse… Check." With that and a slight smirk on his face, he left his apartment and headed to Urahara's shop.

Why Urahara's shop, you might ask? Well, because she had been taken to Hueco Mundo again. He didn't understand why that gloomy looking Espada was always capturing her – after all, they had already beaten the snot out of them before so you'd think he'd give up, but he digressed.

Ishida nodded to the kids Jinta and Ururu as he walked in to the shop, and continued down to the basement where Urahara had already a door ready for me to head to Hueco Mundo. "It's nice to see you again, Ishida-san." He said smiling cheerfully for a moment before hiding his smile behind his ever present fan.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Are you implying I am ever not ready?" He asked, not sure if he should be offended or amused. With another smile and a nod, he saw Ishida off through the door.

"You'd think they'd get tired of this game someday. It must be nice being young." Urahara said casually to his friend and underling Tessai, who had walked up to watch.

Ishida casually walked the path through Hueco Mundo. There was no danger anymore, amazingly – after the defeat of Aizen things had calmed down greatly and they had relative peace with the arrancar left after that battle.

That didn't mean things were COMPLETELY problem free though. He stared up at the newly rebuilt fortress Las Noches. This time color had been added, something that Orihime had assuredly insisted on. "Personally, I LIKED the white…" He mumbled, thinking out loud before continuing on to enter the fortress's outer wall.

"Heeey! ISHIDA-KUUUUUN!" He heard shouted at him. Glancing up he saw Orihime waving cheerfully at him from one of the towers. "… She'd be Rapunzel if only she had longer hair." He smirked slightly, waving back. He quickly used his skills as a Quincy to jump to the tower window, saving himself a whole lot of walking – he didn't feel like fighting his way through the remodeling like last time. He'd learned his lesson.

"Orihime, what have I told you about coming here?" Ishida asked the second he landed inside the tower, standing protectively between Orihime and her "captor."

"Only when I have an escort?" She asked, her eyes innocently wide. "But Ulquiorra-chan said he had ice cream, ketchup, and leeks for me if I wanted to eat with him tonight." He noticed a slight twitch in emocar over her having tacked "-chan" to his name and hid his amusement at this. He was one of the last of the original Espada, only a few had survived the war. It was surprising that he had surrendered, but then, considering that he had apparently spent more time with Orihime then the others had, maybe it SHOULDN'T be so surprising. It was obvious that he had some sort of inhuman feeling towards her, like a dog to his mistress.

"… If you'd wanted that you could have just asked me you know." I sighed.

"Enough." Ulquiorra said. "She's having dinner with me. Wait for your own turn." He looked emotionlessly at me.

"I guess I'll have to fight you again." Ishida shook his head, rather amused.

"So it seems." Ulquiorra responded far too readily.

"So what's the deal today, Orihime?" They both turned and stared at her, waiting for her decision.

"…. Uuum…. Thumb wrestling!" She jumped up and down in cheerfulness, making both of the males wonder what the hell was wrong with themselves. "I'll eat dinner with whoever wins!"

Ulquiorra almost sighed "Very well."

"That works… I guess…" Ishida added, as they walked over to the small round table in the room and sat down across from each other and locked opposing hands before looking expectantly at her, waiting for her to start.

"Alright, go on the count of three! One… Two… THREE!" She brought her hand down to signal the start of their match.

They furiously struggled against each other, each hoping to gain the "upper thumbs," but in the end Ishida, for the sake of this story, managed to pin Ulquiorra's thumb, and therefore win back Orihime.

"The winner is… ISHIDA!" Orihime announced enthusiastically, as if the other people in the room didn't realize who the winner was. "Alright, bye Ulquiorra-chan! I'll see you next week OK?"

"As you wish." He replied, walking out of the room with his hands in his pocket, annoyed at having lost but confident he would win next time, for there WOULD be a next time.

"Alright, time to get you back home." Ishida reached out and took Orihime's hand, leading her back out of Hueco Mundo and back to the human world. "Alright, where would you like to eat?"

"… Can't I cook for you?" She asked, looking at him with those overly innocent eyes yet again. He couldn't fight that look, even if it meant his stomach would be fighting HIM later.

"I would like that." He smiled as he answered and took her hand in his again, to continue leading her through the streets. "Would you like to go to the store then?"

"Are you out of leeks?"

"Unfortunately, the answer to that is yes."

"Then we HAVE to go!" That settled, they walked off into the depths of Karakura town, him listening to Orihime plan their meal, all the while with a slight smile on his face.


End file.
